^{Credit: KPop Demon Hunters (Netflix, Sony Picture Animation), The Girl Who Cried Pearls (National Film Board of Canada)} 

Well, it’s official. Aunt Gladys exists in the KPop Demon Hunters universe.

Conan O'Brien as Aunt Gladys animated into the ‘KPOP DEMON HUNTERS’ universe

See the full winners list: https://t.co/2LO8EZqZIM pic.twitter.com/vaUNBJg5iK

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) March 15, 2026

Conan O’Brien’s hilarious opening to the 98th Academy Awards was oddly prognostic, as the first two categories announced were Best Supporting Actress, which Amy Madigan won for her performance as Gladys in Weapons, and Best Animated Feature, the latter of which went to KPop Demon Hunters. Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans’s film completed its near-sweep of the season with Oscar gold. In doing so, Kang became the first director of South Korean descent to win in this category. What’s more, Kang and producer Michelle L.M. Wong are the first Asian women to take home Best Animated Feature. 

“To all the fans who got us here and for those of you who look like me, sorry that it took us so long to see us in a movie like this," Kang said in her speech. "But it is here. And that means that the next generations don’t have to go longing. This is for Korea and for Koreans everywhere.” KPop Demon Hunters is the category’s fourth winner from a female co-director, the previous three being Shrek, Brave, and Frozen. It was the second win in this category for Sony Pictures Animation after Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. KPop Demon Hunters is also the second Best Animated Feature Oscar for distributor Netflix, which previously won for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.

Speaking of del Toro, he tried to get the crowd to stand up when KPop Demon Hunters won. Between del Toro’s Pinocchio, The Boy and the Heron, Flow, and now KPop Demon Hunters, it’s been four years since Best Animated Feature went to a Disney or Pixar production. Disney’s Encanto won in 2022, while Pixar’s Soul won in 2021. Both studios were still represented this year with Pixar’s Elio and Disney’s Zootopia 2 both nominated alongside Arco and Little Amélie or the Character of Rain. 

Guillermo Del Toro stood up for #KPopDemonHunters winning best animated feature and was trying to encourage the crowd to stand too.

The dude is a ride or die for the medium.@Variety @TheAcademy pic.twitter.com/Muf4irYUpa

— Clayton Davis (@ByClaytonDavis) March 15, 2026

Best Animated Short went to The Girl Who Cried Pearls. Directors Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski were previously nominated in this category for Madame Tutli-Putli in 2008. They lost to Suzie Templeton’s Peter and the Wolf that year. Ironically, Peter and the Wolf was the last stop-motion animated short to win in this category. Lavis and Szczerbowski have broken that dry spell just under twenty years later. The Girl Who Cried Pearls was distributed by the National Film Board of Canada, which has a decades-long history in this category. The Girl Who Cried Pearls won over Butterfly, Forevergreen, Retirement Plan, and The Three Sisters. 

It was no surprise that Avatar: Fire and Ash won Best Visual Effects, especially since Sigourney Weaver co-presented the category. Just as they did with Avatar: The Way of Water, the Oscar showrunners didn’t hesitate to play off the Avatar VFX crew mid-speech. Avatar joins Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings as one of the only franchises to win this award three times. Joe Letteri notably has Avatar and Rings in common, having won for his work on both series. The third film in the Avatar series beat out F1, Jurassic World Rebirth, The Lost Bus, and Sinners. 

Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and  Rei Ami performed “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters on the telecast, in what also served as a tribute to Korean culture and music. Although “Golden” was heavily favored to take home Best Original Song following its wins at the Critics’ Choice Awards, Golden Globes, and Grammys, there was always a possibility that “I Lied to You” from Sinners could surprise here. Despite there being five nominees, “I Lied to You” and “Golden” were the only songs performed on the telecast. While we’ll never know how close the race was, “Golden” ultimately prevailed. In doing so, it became one of only two songs from non-Disney/Pixar animated features to win an Oscar. The other was “When You Believe” from The Prince of Egypt. 

Ejae, Ido, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Mark Sonnenblick, Teddy, and 24 shared in the victory. With seven credited writers, this is the most recipients for a Best Original Song winner ever. As such, the team received one statuette, per an Academy rule that limits the number of trophies to four in this category. Even if they only got one statuette, all seven songwriters are officially Oscar winners. Ejae also provided Rumi’s singing voice in the film, making it the first time the voice of an animated character won in this category. 

They're goin' up, up, up, this is their moment. ✨

EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, and REI AMI performing “Golden” from KPOP DEMON HUNTERS at the 98th #Oscars. pic.twitter.com/0egM19KPU7

— The Academy (@TheAcademy) March 16, 2026

“Growing up, people made fun of me for liking K-pop, but now everyone’s singing our song and all the Korean lyrics," Ejae said in her speech. “I’m so proud. And I realized, the song, this award is not about success. It’s about resilience. And I’m just so grateful to our team, and just want to thank my mom, my dad, my brother, my fiancé, my manager, of course, for always staying with me. And I also want to thank, of course, the resilient cast of KPop Demon Hunters. Thank you so much to Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, and our producer, Michelle Wang. Thank you so much for the film. Thank you to Netflix. Thank you, Sony Animation.” Yu Han Lee also tried to get a word in, but he was unfortunately cut off. 

Between Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song, KPop Demon Hunters is the first non-Disney/Pixar animated film to win multiple Oscars. Of this year’s nominees, the only films that won more Oscars were One Battle After Another (6), Sinners (4), and Frankenstein (3). KPop Demon Hunters thus won more Oscars than Best Picture nominees Bugonia (0), F1 (1), Hamnet (1), Marty Supreme (0), The Secret Agent (0), Sentimental Value (1), and Train Dreams (0). KPop Demon Hunters was this year's most-awarded film not up for Best Picture, an award that it wasn’t eligible for. 

KPOP DEMON HUNTERS OSCAR WINNER!

Written and directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans. Starring Arden Cho, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo, and Ahn Hyo-seop. And the singing voices of EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, and REI AMI. pic.twitter.com/wFTtNMyKdC

— Netflix (@netflix) March 15, 2026

Here’s a recap of this year’s animated nominees: 

Best Animated Feature
Arco (Ugo Bienvenu, Félix de Givry, Sophie Mas, and Natalie Portman)
Elio (Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina, and Mary Alice Drumm)
KPop Demon Hunters (Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans, and Michelle L.M. Wong) - WINNER
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han, Nidia Santiago, and Henri Magalon)
Zootopia 2 (Jared Bush, Byron Howard, and Yvett Merino)

Best Animated Short
Butterfly (Florence Miailhe and Ron Dyens)
Forevergreen (Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears)
The Girl Who Cried Pearls (Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski) - WINNER
Retirement Plan (John Kelly and Andrew Freedman)
The Three Sisters (Konstantin Bronzit)
 
Best Visual Effects
Avatar: Fire and Ash (Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, and Daniel Barrett) - WINNER
F1 (Ryan Tudhope, Nicolas Chevallier, Robert Harrington, and Keith Dawson)
Jurassic World Rebirth (David Vickery, Stephen Aplin, Charmaine Chan, and Neil Corbould)
The Lost Bus (Charlie Noble, David Zaretti, Russell Bowen, and Brandon K. McLaughlin)
Sinners (Michael Ralla, Espen Nordahl, Guido Wolter, and Donnie Dean)

Best Original Song
"Dear Me" from Diane Warren: Relentless (Music and lyrics by Diane Warren)
"Golden" from KPop Demon Hunters (Music and lyrics by Ejae, Mark Sonnenblick, 24, Ido, and Teddy Park) - WINNER
"I Lied to You" from Sinners (Music and lyrics by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Göransson)
"Sweet Dreams of Joy" from Viva Verdi! (Music and lyrics by Nicholas Pike)
"Train Dreams" from Train Dreams (Music by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner; lyrics by Nick Cave)

Other Thoughts on the 98th Academy Awards Ceremony:

My only note on Conan’s Gladys opening? Hamnet should’ve been among the kids chasing him, and it should’ve ended with Rose Byrne kicking him. 

Will Arnett and Channing Tatum presented the two animation categories, which included a shout-out to the former’s performance as BoJack Horseman. That almost compensates for the Oscars rescinding BoJack’s nomination for playing Secretariat.  

Oh hey, a Lawnmower Man reference! 

Me Before the Oscars: Is The Singers or Two People Exchanging Saliva winning Best Live-Action Short?
Me After the Oscars: Yes. 

Glad I didn’t overthink Sean Penn winning Best Supporting Actor, but based on applause, there was more love for Delroy Lindo and Stellan Skarsgård in the room. Probably because Penn wasn’t there, as Kieran Culkin pointed out in the most Kieran Culkin way possible. 

This year’s In Memoriam was a marathon, but given how much talent we lost, each tribute felt warranted. Especially touched to see The Lion King co-director Roger Allers featured in the montage. 

Sigourney Weaver says, “Get away from him, you bitch,” to Kate Hudson as she cuddles Grogu. Still a better Aliens callback than the one we got in Alien: Romulus. 

Autumn Durald Arkapaw is the first female Best Cinematography winner. Another historic win! 

Thrilled that Ryan Coogler won Best Original Screenplay for Sinners. We’re still waiting for a Black person to win Best Director after almost 100 years, however. 

Michael B. Jordan is the second actor to win Best Actor for a dual performance in a horror movie. The first was Fredric March for 1931’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Jessie Buckley in Hamnet, just the Best Actress of the Year or the Best Performance of the Decade?

I’ve been waiting a long time to say this: Three-time Academy Award-winner Paul Thomas Anderson!

Sinners only won 1/4 of its record 16 nominations. That doesn’t make it the “biggest loser in Oscar history.” Sinners is a winner. 

Between One Battle After Another and Sinners, Warner Bros. dominated the night. You know which studio got no Oscar nominations? Paramount. 

I got 18 out of 24 in my predictions. You?

As someone who’s been championing KPop Demon Hunters since it debuted last summer, I’m just going to leave things with a quote from my review: “It’s hard to say how the Academy will respond to a film called KPop Demon Hunters, especially if Netflix puts its priorities elsewhere in their crowded animation slate. At the very least, we deserve to see one of these songs performed on the Oscar telecast. Lisa of Blackpink became the first K-pop star to crash the Oscars this year. Let’s make Huntrix the second!” 

Nick Spake is the Author of Bright & Shiny: A History of Animation at Award Shows Volumes 1, 2, and 3. Available Now!